Observe a laboratory activity or base your answer on past visits. How does your CT conduct a typical laboratory activity? How does he or she open the activity and organize student groups? How do students learn what they're expected to do during the period? Reflect on your reading about inquiry and your experience with the NECAP inquiry task. How did the laboratory activity you observe prepare students for the type of activities that might show up on the NECAP in the future? What inquiry elements would you strengthen? What science practices do you want to stress when you're teaching?
Within my middle school classroom, a typical laboratory experiment will begin by my cooperating teacher demonstrating the procedure to the activity. In other cases, students will have the opportunity to review the laboratory procedures the previous night, and be ready the following school day to perform the experiment.If students have the opportunity to read their laboratory procedures the previous night at home for homework, then my cooperating teacher asks if there are any questions regarding the steps of what the activity entails. If there are no questions, students get right to work on the laboratory. In situations where my cooperating teacher does not assign any pre-laboratory review of the procedure, it will usually be demonstrated to them at the beginning of that particular class period. Usually the activity is opened with a question that incorporates proving a principle that is being learned within the content that is being covered within the course at that time. Coming into the classroom several weeks into the school year, it was not brought to my attention how students were placed in their laboratory groups. I have noticed, for the most part, students are grouped and have been working with the same people. I'm unsure if students were grouped based on where they normally sit at their desks within their rows, or if they were grouped out of student choice, or if they were grouped completely spontaneously. What I have noticed is that students have primarily worked within the same groups since I have been in their classroom. My cooperating teacher and I walk around to the laboratory benches to monitor student progress, answer any questions students may have about the activity, as well as keep students focused on the activity. Some laboratory activities that have been done take more than one class period, but others have been completed in a single forty-five minute time frame.
During many of the past laboratory activities within my middle school classroom, the introduction to the activity is always one of the most critical components to the entire activity. Without properly introducing the activity, students may be unclear of how this investigation fits into the content that they are learning. With students being so eager to perform laboratory experiments and activities, they may sometimes not follow the laboratory procedures to the inquiry activity. In introductions to these laboratory experiments, it is imperative to demonstrate and review laboratory procedures in order to minimize these student errors. Demonstrating and reviewing the laboratory procedures will not only decrease student errors, but it will also reinforce the main points of the purpose, as well as clearly display how the question under investigation will be solved. Along with the opening to any experiment, the closing is just as important. Without concluding and debriefing on how the higher order thinking question or purpose was successfully or unsuccessfully proven, then the activity would be incomplete.If time and emphasis is directed towards the opening, the procedure, and the actual experiment, then it seems the conclusion would carry the same importance. In my classroom, this will be a constant when my students are performing laboratory activities and experiments. Regarding the NECAP exam, I believe when students have the opportunity to review the laboratory procedure themselves, and then preform that procedure the following day in their science class, it increased their independence of learning and completing science inquiry. This increased independence will not only serve students well with their science course, but also on their NECAP exam. Being well prepared and equipped to solve scientific inquiry independently will also increase student confidence to do well in situations that call for working alone on science tasks.
Within my middle school classroom, a typical laboratory experiment will begin by my cooperating teacher demonstrating the procedure to the activity. In other cases, students will have the opportunity to review the laboratory procedures the previous night, and be ready the following school day to perform the experiment.If students have the opportunity to read their laboratory procedures the previous night at home for homework, then my cooperating teacher asks if there are any questions regarding the steps of what the activity entails. If there are no questions, students get right to work on the laboratory. In situations where my cooperating teacher does not assign any pre-laboratory review of the procedure, it will usually be demonstrated to them at the beginning of that particular class period. Usually the activity is opened with a question that incorporates proving a principle that is being learned within the content that is being covered within the course at that time. Coming into the classroom several weeks into the school year, it was not brought to my attention how students were placed in their laboratory groups. I have noticed, for the most part, students are grouped and have been working with the same people. I'm unsure if students were grouped based on where they normally sit at their desks within their rows, or if they were grouped out of student choice, or if they were grouped completely spontaneously. What I have noticed is that students have primarily worked within the same groups since I have been in their classroom. My cooperating teacher and I walk around to the laboratory benches to monitor student progress, answer any questions students may have about the activity, as well as keep students focused on the activity. Some laboratory activities that have been done take more than one class period, but others have been completed in a single forty-five minute time frame.
During many of the past laboratory activities within my middle school classroom, the introduction to the activity is always one of the most critical components to the entire activity. Without properly introducing the activity, students may be unclear of how this investigation fits into the content that they are learning. With students being so eager to perform laboratory experiments and activities, they may sometimes not follow the laboratory procedures to the inquiry activity. In introductions to these laboratory experiments, it is imperative to demonstrate and review laboratory procedures in order to minimize these student errors. Demonstrating and reviewing the laboratory procedures will not only decrease student errors, but it will also reinforce the main points of the purpose, as well as clearly display how the question under investigation will be solved. Along with the opening to any experiment, the closing is just as important. Without concluding and debriefing on how the higher order thinking question or purpose was successfully or unsuccessfully proven, then the activity would be incomplete.If time and emphasis is directed towards the opening, the procedure, and the actual experiment, then it seems the conclusion would carry the same importance. In my classroom, this will be a constant when my students are performing laboratory activities and experiments. Regarding the NECAP exam, I believe when students have the opportunity to review the laboratory procedure themselves, and then preform that procedure the following day in their science class, it increased their independence of learning and completing science inquiry. This increased independence will not only serve students well with their science course, but also on their NECAP exam. Being well prepared and equipped to solve scientific inquiry independently will also increase student confidence to do well in situations that call for working alone on science tasks.